Amplifier woes

[PRIVATEpastry 10+ year member]

I've had the same setup in my ride for about 2 years now and about a week ago the sub stopped working. It would stop playing for a minute, then play again, then stop...etc (all while I am driving - bumpy ride).

I checked the amp and it isn't the power/ground or fuses because the power light is on the whole time and the protect light is off. I then re-checked the speaker wiring and that was fine. I moved on to the RCA's - I replaced the RCA cables and the same thing was happening. When I wiggle the rca plugs on the amp the sub will start playing again for a bit.

This leads me to believe that the RCA jacks are bad on the amp, so I opened up the amp and looked around. I'm not experienced at all in amp repair, but I didn't see any obvious signs of loose connectors or anything by the RCA jacks.

So I guess the question is - would it be easy to repair the jacks, or would it be best to take it to a repair shop?

P.S. The amp is a Directed 1100D

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[Spooney 10+ year member]

If it is just the jacks it wouldn't be too difficult if you can find a replacement and are handy at all with a soldering iron. the hardest part would be re-assembling the amp and making sure all the transistors get seated properly onto the heatsink. if there is the tiniest metal shaving or piece of debris between the heatsink and the transistors/insulators that part will heat up and fail.

 

[PRIVATEpastry 10+ year member]

Where would I go abouts gettin the parts and/or a walkthrough on how to replace it?

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

well you may find when you disassemble the amp that the jacks aren't even bad themselves. Could only be a broken solder connection. If you could get me a detailed pic of the rcas themselves(inside and outside of the amp) particularly where they go into the circuit board I may have something that would work for you. Going through directed to get the parts could be a pain. You are going to need a decent soldering iron to do this. The radio shack 40 watt iron is inexpensive and should work well enough for this provided you tin the tip properly.

 

[PRIVATEpastry 10+ year member]

Okay, I tried to get a few good pics of the RCA jacks and the area around them... here they are:

ImageShack Album - 5 images

Let me know if there are any other angles or anything that would help.

 

[PRIVATEpastry 10+ year member]

Bump..any other ideas/input?

 

[PRIVATEpastry 10+ year member]

Haha well if nobody can help out, does anyone have any idea how much it would cost to take it to the shop and have them replace the RCAs?

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

If you are confident enough about your ability you should try to desolder the rca inputs from the circuit board. You will need a desoldering pump and some decent desoldering braid(not the radio shack desoldering braid please!). It may look like everything is ok but sometimes you will have to remove the rcas completely before you find the break if that is the issue. The pins on the rca connector could have the smallest crack in them and cause it to be an intermitent connection. It may also be that the connection inside of the rca jacks isn't that great.it may have become loose over the years. If this is the case you may be able to take a small pick and bend the contacts(very gently) until they more solidly grab the center pin of your rca cables